Another snub for Too Like the Lightning, I see. I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t something unique about about EPH or this year’s Hugo voterbase that’s really helping that book even though it’s not making longer lists in popular-choice lists like this or insider-driven lists like Nebula or the Locus Recommended list…

Jeff R.: Another snub for Too Like the Lightning, I see. I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t something unique about about EPH or this year’s Hugo voterbase that’s really helping that book even though it’s not making longer lists in popular-choice lists like this or insider-driven lists like Nebula or the Locus Recommended list…

TLtL is only half a book. A lot of Hugo nominators were enthusiastic enough about it that they were willing to overlook its incompleteness, but I can see where juried and semijuried awards (and I consider the Nebula mostly a juried award because a smallish group of SFF authors nominate and vote in it) might be more stringent in their requirements.

And honestly, I don’t think that you can use the Dragon Award as an indicator of anything. I don’t think that they actively promoted it to the convention members (or anyone else, for that matter), and it’s clear, based on a significant number of the finalists, that there is a lot of Friends-and-Family logrolling and Multiple-Email-Address ballot box stuffing going on.

I would have expected EPH to hurt TLTL if anything; its support would probably overlap a lot with other things popular in the Hugo community. JJ’s explanation of why it’s not doing well in other awards looks good to me. (And Birds and Ninefox are also missing – actually I was a bit surprised to see as many Hugo finalists on the Dragon list as there actually are.)

As to Comic Book and Graphic Novel, I take it the same thing could be eligible for both if it appears first serially and then in collected form.

Have they not got the results up on an actual webpage yet? The Dragon Con main page is just linking to last year’s results, and I noticed that when Scalzi mentioned his nomination he linked to Nick Cole’s FB to do so.

@Andrew M Both Ninefox Gambit and All the Birds in the Sky were published in the first half of 2016, so are outside the Dragon’s weird July – July eligibility period.

As for the rest… sigh. I share JJ’s analysis that this is still a ballot that tells us nothing about the state of SFF literature beyond “which specific authors are good at mobilising a section of their fanbase to vote on a poorly advertised award”. It doesn’t give us a sense of what’s most popular among readers in general, or what dedicated book devourers enjoyed the most, or what authors other authors are enjoying. So who exactly is this shortlist useful for? Does “the people who like this author have been successfully persuaded to vote for them in an online poll” help occasional readers to find the best new works in the genre they enjoy? Does it make regular readers (who are more likely to know how the sausage is made) reprioritise their TBRs to pick up works they might have missed first time around? And if it’s not a useful indicator of readership or quality, how can the award help authors themselves, either to promote themselves to new potential readers or to develop their position in the industry?

I’m all for puppies developing their own awards, but legitimacy isn’t automatic no matter which major Con you can convince to let you share branding with, and the Dragons are never going to have it as long as their shortlist makes so little sense.

The schedule is out and there are a number of puppies/ puppy friends are on the program: Charles Gannon, Correia, Antonelli, and Eric Flint . Not shy about it either : Flint and Correia will be presenting / speaking at the awards ceremony. I saw last year that 2 of the awards organizers –
Cody and Fawcett had been posting encouragement to gotv at Monster Hunter Nation. I wonder if turnout is looking different this year – because they are offering a free con membership and trying to encourage voting now.